PointGrab Gesture Control For iOS/OSX Turns Your Hand Into a Wiimote-like Device

Today at CES 2013, we got a demo from Israeli firm PointGrab, which showed off software coded with its gesture control SDK. The company’s SDK brings a Wiimote-like experience to almost every platform out there, and now its coming to iOS and OSX. There’s no extra charge for hardware either; the software will employ your webcam to do the heavy lifting.

PointGrab showed us two pieces of software that were developed with the SDK. One was an iOS app called CamMe, which allowed us to take photos with hand gestures. Once the integrated webcam detected our hand with our palm facing the lens, all we had to do was close our hand and the 3-second timer began counting down, culminating in a photo being shot.

We were also shown an archery simulator that was developed with PointGrab’s SDK, which we interacted with in a similar manner. To pick up the webcam’s sensor, we held our palm up facing it. Once our hand was detected, we closed our palm, physically pulled back our arm and then opened our hand again when we wanted to fire the arrow. The amount of strength we put into the shot depended on how far back our arm was when we reopened our hand.

The CamMe app will be available for iOS next month and OSX by the end of Q1, and will include the PointGrab SDK. PointGrab hopes that developers will take the SDK and run with it, opening the door to new levels of interaction with gesture control-enabled apps and games. In the meantime, stay tuned for further coverage of PointGrab announcements and all things CES 2013.